Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director


The Best Director Award is an annual award presented at the Cannes Film Festival for best directing achievements in a feature film screened as part of festival's official selection. Awarded by festival's jury, it was first given in 1946.
The prize was not awarded on 12 occasions. In addition, the festival was not held at all in 1948 and 1950, while in 1968 no awards were given as the festival was called off mid-way due to the May 1968 events in France. Also, the jury vote was tied and prize was shared by two directors on seven occasions.
The winner of Best Director Award rarely wins the Palme d'Or, the main prize at the festival. This happened only twice, in 1991, when Joel Coen won both awards for Barton Fink, and in 2003, when Gus Van Sant won for his film Elephant.

List of winners

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